This is a blog from a long time resident and is focused on the issues facing North Bay Village, Florida, the most densely populated municipality in the state. Opinions expressed are my own but facts are facts. I welcome comments and even guest posts.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Changing the Tone

I can't believe this blog is only 10 months old. It seems both brand new and like I've been doing this for years. This post election Thursday seems as good a time as any to assess what's the same and what's different.

I started with the hope and the belief that the reason the discussion had deteriorated was that the art of political discussion had been lost. I still believe that.

In one of my first posts, on January 16, (click here for a trip down memory lane), I wrote about the nasty tone of the civil politic, in particular the antics of Fane Lozman and Connie Leon-Kreps. I am very worried about Kreps, the secretary of the Citizens for Full Disclosure, being on the Commission. Her childish and erratic behavior does not bode well.

I had hoped that the Citizens for Full Disclosure was an organization looking to improve the civic dialogue. It's not. It's merely a group of self serving cyber bullies hiding behind anonymous emails. I had come very close to publishing a piece by their president, Richard Chervony, in the hope that a public dialogue would help the citizens of NBV evaluate our politics in the light, but Chervony refused to remove a casual, unprovable libel from his piece. Chervony simply did not see that libel, stating a false fact about someone, was different than opinion.

I was inundated by emails from the CFD and Chervony himself with unflattering histories of candidates, both real and imagined, who did not suit the CFD agenda. Reluctantly I came to the conclusion that the CFD was no more than it seems, a mendacious cyber collection of people looking to advance their own personal good and incoherently angry people being exploited by those who always know how to direct useful idiots.

I did not start though mainly because of the crudeness, but rather to get more people in the process. There's been success. I now get over 300 readers per week as measured by Google Analytics. I am hearing from people who agree or disagree with me and want to know more. I believe I have brought clarity on the issues to the electorate in this cycle.

I want to see our city face its problems head on. Citizens need to be involved all around. More people have to attend and speak up at the commission meetings. We all have to watch the process. We have a new commission, less than ideal, but let's assume the best and give that commission the chance to hear rationally and openly our concerns.